The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-04-07

Jug III W lCCl LOW dIo SuIlS tuO SdpUdiu
| of salvation, on the white horse, riding
down our foes; but in the moment he
made the victorious charge the lances of
death struck him
There was very touching scene among
an Indian tribe in the last century. 1t
seemed that one of the chieftans had slain
man belonging to an opposite tribe, and
that tribe came up and said:
'sWe will exterminate you unless you
surrender the man who committed that
crime"
The chieftain who did the crime stepped
out from the ranks and said:
II am not afraid to die, but / have a
wife and four children, and have father
aged and mother aged, whom l support
by hunting, and l sorrow to leave them
helpless"
Just as he said that his old father from
behind stepped out and said:
''He shall not die; / take his place.
am old and well stricken in years. l can
do no good. might as well die. My days
are almost over. He can not be spared.
Take me-"
And they accepted the sacrifice. Won
derful sacrifice! you say but not so Won
derful as that found in the Gospel, for
we deserved to die, aye, we were SEN
fenced when Christ, not worn out with
years, but in flush of his youth said:
''Save that man from going down to the
pit / am the ransom. Put his burdens on
my shoulders. Let his stripes fall on my
back. Take my heart for his heart. Let
me die that he may i've"
Shall it be told in Heaven to-day that,
notwithstanding all those wounds, and all
that blood, and all those tears, and all
that agony, you would not accept him?
Was 1t for crimes that I had done,
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity, grace unknown,
And love beyond degree.
There is no woe amid the surroundings
of that scene that impresses me more
than that of his own mother. You need
not point her out to me- 1 can see by the
sorrow, the ang uish, the WOO, by the up
thrown hands. That all means mother.
''Oh," you say, "why didn't she go down
to the foot of the hill aud sit with her back
to the scenes 1t was too horrible for hel
to look upon"
Do you not know when a child is in
anguish or trouble it always makes a
heroine of a mothera Take her away, you
say, from the cross. You can not drag
her away. She will keep on looking; as
her son breathes she will stand there
looking. Oh, what scene it was for a
tender>hearted mother to look upon
How gladly she would have sprung to his
relief. 1t was her son. Her son. How
gladly she would have clambered up on the
cross and hung there herself if her son
could have been relieved. How strength
ening she would have been to Christ
if she might have come close by him, and
soothed hlma Oh, there was a good deal
in what the little sick child said upon
whom surgical operation of a painful
nature must be performed. The doctor
said:
s'That child won't live through this
operation unless you encourage him. You
go in and get his consents 81
The father told him all the doctor said
and added:
'Now, John, viii you go through with
it; will you consent to it!'
He looked very pale, and he thought q
| minute and said:
eyes, father, if you will hold my hand
| will"
| So the father held his hand and led him
| straight through the peril. Oh, woman
| in your hour of anguish, whom do you
want with youa Mother. If the mother
OF Jesus could only have taken those
bleeding feet into her lap. If she Nigh,
have taken the dying head on her bosom
| Ii she might have said to him: ~
sit will soon be over, Jesus; it will Don
be over, and we will meet again and il
will be all WE'LL"
| But no. she dared not come up so close
| They would have struck her back with
their hammers. They would have kicked
| her down the HILL
| There can be no alienation at all. Je
sus must suffer and Mary must look
| suppose she thought of the birth-hour il
Bethlehem. Isuppose she thought of tht
time when, with her boy in her bosom
she fastened into the darkness in the
| fight toward Egypt. l suppose sht
thought of his boyhood, when he was the
| joy of her heart suppose she thought Of
the thousand kindnesses he had done her
notforsaking her or forgetting her, ever
in his last nom ents, but turning to Johr
and saying:
There is mother; take her with you
She is old now; she IN not help herself
Do for her just as / would have done TO,
her if L had lived. Be very tender anG
| gentle with her. Behold thy m others
She thought it all over, and there is nc
memory like mothers memory and there
is no woe like mothers woe.
| remark again: This is tender scene
because it is a Christian reunion. Why i.
it that in the seasonal meeting, when
asked a woman if it were her son who sal
next to her making profession of his faith
she made no answer, but, after moment
| trying to control her emotion, she burs
into tearsa / said within. myself: She
need not tell me the story. It is the Ole
story of a prodigal got back. .'The dead
is alive again, and the lost is foundn Oh
how many families there are that reioic,
together today
| These Christians during the rest of tn,
year, perhaps, will not know much abou
each other You go in one circle of so
ciety, these go in some other circle Of so
ciety, and this one travels in that TIL
and this one the other path; but to-day W,
all come on one platform. and we max,
one confession, and we cling to one cross
and we gaze upon one death anguish. L
seems to me this morning not like ;
church, but like great family circle
and we join hands around the cross O.
Christ, and we say:
Zone Lord, one faith, one baptism. on,
| cross, one Christ, one doxology, on,
| Heavenr'
| While stand here it seems to me as I
| this communion table which ic on Iv sora,